As the world's citizens are practicing social distancing and are in isolation, one dad is not taking any risk of infection, even if that means keeping his son out of the house.
Peter Levine, from Nanuet, N.Y., forbade his son, Matt, from participating in spring break activities with his friends from Springfield College in Massachusetts as the virus had everyone confined to their homes.
But the 21-year-old went to join his friends in South Padre Island, Texas, to party anyway and is paying for his betrayal.
He is no longer welcome inside the family home.
Peter, 52, is a salesman.
But even he could not convince his son to come home after strictly advising him against partaking in the hedonistic festivities.
He told The New York Post he was "aggravated" after seeing pictures of his son rubbing elbows in close proximity to other spring breakers who should all be six feet apart or at home.
"I spoke with him every day and told him that maybe they should come home."
"I was aggravated. The news here was getting worse and worse. Matt sent me pictures of him and his friends congregating outdoors and listening to live music. It's the scene you would not want to be in."
Peter added:
"His grandparents live here and there is no need to expose them to god knows what he had been exposed to!"
Twitter users lauded the father for his resolute cooperation in aiding with virus curbing measures.
Matt and his friends managed to make their return trip home amidst flight cancellations during the ongoing pandemic.
"But the flight got rerouted to Tennessee because of a confirmed corona case at LaGuardia."
"The passengers were freaking out and trying to stay away from each other. But we made it home."
Despite making the plane back to New York, Matt and his crew did not make it all the way home.
Peter refused to pick his son up from the airport and Matt resorted to arranging for a car service to Nanuet.
But Peter did not leave the ragtag bunch completely hung out to dry.
"I had filled the trunk of Matt's car with groceries and left him an envelope containing $300 in cash."
"All the guys' keys were on the front seat. They got out of the car [from the airport] near our driveway and I said, 'Stay right there!"
"Do not go any further!' The guys were tired and they had a two-and-a-half hour drive ahead of them. I love my son, but they were not sleeping here."
"I said, 'If any of you have to pee, we have some bushes.' Two of them took me up on it."
The son found out the hard way what he was on the receiving end of.
Matt was better off not going to the spring break outing at all.
Matt – who is a senior majoring in sports management – failed to manage his expectations when he found out strict regulations prevented the partygoers from maximizing their time four days into the trip.
He told the NY Post:
"We were only allowed to go to the beach in small groups and couldn't have speakers; by then, there was basically no one on the island."
"The police seemed like they were trying to ruin our good time."
No Matt, they were just trying to prevent ignorant vacationers from spreading the virus.
If you're not selfish enough to endanger others by going out during a pandemic, but you still want to have a little fun, you can find a bevy of entertainment options here.
@islamoradalover/Bluesky
@hillbillybluedog/Bluesky
